ALL TOO HUMAN

Monday

Mar 12, 2018 at 3:37 PM

Jody Feinberg The Patriot Ledger

When a play is called "The Humans," the title hints at the messy complexity of the characters. The comic drama centers on a scenario nearly universal in the United States – a family gathering for Thanksgiving dinner.

This three-generation middle-class Irish-American family comes together gladly, not dutifully. But the gathering is fraught because all have been buffeted by circumstances beyond their control, and none have the life they imagined. Written by Stephen Karam, the national tour of the Broadway production runs March 13-25 at the Schubert Theatre.

In circumstances worthy of a good cry, humor can keep one going. That’s the case with daughter and sister Aimee Blake, played by Therese Plaehn, who grew up in Scituate and graduated from Notre Dame Academy in Hingham in 1997.

"There's anxiety in general going to a family holiday, and Aimee is particularly vulnerable," Plaehn said. "She is funny and smart, but she doesn’t know what she’s going to do next. And she wants to protect her family from all her pain."

Aimee copes with a triple loss - her job as a lawyer, her health from ulcerative colitis and her romantic relationship after a recent breakup with her longtime girlfriend. Her sister, Brigid, who is hosting the dinner in the Manhattan basement apartment she shares with her boyfriend, studied to be a composer but works as a bartender and is mired in student debt. Her grandmother, Momo, has Alzheimer's, and her parents, after working 30 years, are financially insecure and burdened with care for her.

In this single act production, everything takes place on two floors. Of the six family members, Aimee is most aware of the dynamics, yet even she only knows part of what’s happening. While she is upstairs confiding with Brigid, the others are having another conversation downstairs, airing squabbles and tensions, disappointments and fears.

"Aimee is aware of everything going on in the room. She's the family diplomat in many ways," Plaehn said. "But the only people who know entirely what’s going on are in the audience, which makes it very intimate.”

Plaehn said she appreciated not just the humor in Karam's writing, but his precision in expressing the inner lives of the family members. "The Humans" was a 2016 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama and won 2016 Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Scenic Design of a Play. Like the Broadway production, the national tour is directed by Joe Mantello.

"When I read it, I had such a deep feeling about this play. I thought 'I understand this family," Plaehn said. "Everyone has their own private moments, and I felt an urgency to tell their story, and that doesn’t always happen."

Her family, fortunately, has not suffered the cascading challenges faced by the Blakes. The toughest times were after her father died of cancer and her mother became the sole parent for her, age 4, and her four older siblings. But eight years later, her mother, Dolly, married Jim Dineen, a doctor, and he became a wonderful step-father, Plaehn said.

The family loved telling stories, which Plaehn said she believes set the foundation for her love of literature and plays. She became serious about acting when she was a Providence College student studying in Ireland.

Like Aimee, Plaehn has had her moments of struggle. After one too many auditions and rejections, she gave up on getting cast in New York City and on studying acting at A.R.T. in Cambridge. But then the unexpected occurred – she was working at Harborfest scrambling Eggbeaters on City Hall Plaza when she received a call telling her she could immediately start A.R.T.’s graduate training program because a student had dropped out. After two years at A.R.T., she returned to New York City and started getting cast. She has had roles at The Huntington Theater, Arts Emerson, A.R.T., Gloucester Stage, as well as in New York theater and television.

“I’ve had weird moments of stars aligning,” said Plaehn, who will talk about her experiences next week with Notre Dame Academy students. “The times I felt like this is too hard and I shouldn’t be doing this, something happened.”

Strange things also happen in “The Humans” as the evening unfolds and the family hears noises and watches the lights dim.

Plaehn broke into surprised laughter when told that, in online reviews, some people found the play so depressing they wished they had stayed home. On the other hand, others have said it’s among the funniest, relevant and most moving plays they’ve seen.

“That’s funny,” said Plaehn, adding she doesn’t read reviews. “This family is really honest in ways that people may find it uncomfortable to watch, but I find it hopeful. I think there are moments of joy and happiness. The ending definitely is in the eye of the beholder, and that’s the beauty of theater.”